"This… I… I don't… I don't know how to calculate it either." Arshe indicated that she had no idea about such things!
She had originally thought Ellie was here to ask Blood Emperor Jilniv for advice or something, but she didn't expect to get a teacher for free so directly.
However, since they had already agreed to give it away for free, she completely failed to understand Ellie's intention in still being so entangled.
After all, that was Ellie! Her Royal Highness Elizabeth of the Ainz Ooal Gown Magic Kingdom.
"This is difficult, then. Emperor Brother, why don't you just name a price?" Ellie threw the question to the Blood Emperor.
"..." Jilniv did not respond directly. When he had suggested paying a commission, he had already decided to give the Female Devil whatever she wanted.
He had originally planned to give it away for free, so the price couldn't be too high. It was just… after hearing her say she wanted to exchange fifty Healers, that was a different matter entirely.
To be honest… Jilniv really wanted these fifty Healers… One must know that for the Empire now, let alone fifty, he would even be willing to exchange ten of his teachers for one Healer.
Even if he couldn't gather that many teachers right now, he would go out on the streets and grab some literate people to make up the number! But! The premise was that those Healers were normal humans, not Undead.
"What's wrong, Emperor Brother? Is there a problem?" Ellie saw the Blood Emperor fall silent, with no reaction for a long time. She knew he was struggling with the price she had offered. She couldn't give him too much time to think; she needed to apply more pressure, Ellie thought.
"No, nothing. I'm just considering what a suitable commission would be to charge." This was just a random excuse Jilniv came up with to prevaricate.
In reality, money wasn't important; what was important were these fifty Healers. Although the Female Devil Elizabeth had tricked him several times, she had always kept her word, so he wasn't too worried about her backing out.
The dilemma for Jilniv now was, if he accepted Elizabeth's terms and received these fifty Undead, how would other human nations view the Empire?
They had just finished negotiating with Theocracy not long ago, and the Church had only just withdrawn. If the Empire immediately brought in a bunch of Undead to replace the Church's position, wouldn't that make other human nations misunderstand that the Empire was now a lackey of the Magic Kingdom?
If that's the case… should he choose not to accept? If he didn't accept, the collapse of the Empire's medical system would only be a matter of time. Those nobles he had purged earlier would surely use this as an excuse to oust him. When that time came, even without the nobles' intervention, the Empire's collapse would only be a matter of time.
"Well! Haven't you thought it through yet? Could it be that Emperor Brother wants to set a high price? Hmm… The Magic Kingdom has only recently been re-established, and its finances are still quite tight. If it's really not possible, I can only give up." Ellie said, feigning a look of distress.
"No, I was planning to give them to you for free anyway. I'm just a bit troubled. If the price is too low, it's no different from giving them away for free, which would be inappropriate. If it's too high, it's even more inappropriate. So I'm bothered by this." Jilniv quickly responded, all of which were excuses, of course.
"Then I'm truly sorry for troubling you, Emperor Brother. I only intended to stop by and didn't expect to cause you such distress. In that case, let's just forget about it! Let's forget about the teachers!" Elizabeth said, then stood up, looking as if she was about to leave.
"Eh? Your Royal Highness Elizabeth, are you leaving already?" Arshe looked surprised. Was she really leaving without the free teachers?
"Please wait a moment, Your Royal Highness Elizabeth…" Jilniv was equally surprised. Seeing Elizabeth raise her hand, preparing to cast a spell, Jilniv quickly spoke to stop her, or she might have teleported away the next second.
"Hmm? Is there anything else, Emperor Brother?" Elizabeth asked with a curious expression. Of course, she was faking it. Ellie naturally knew that Jilniv wouldn't give up on those fifty Healers so easily.
"Um, I wonder where Your Royal Highness Elizabeth plans to go next?" Jilniv did not directly bring up the topic of the Healers again but instead asked about Elizabeth's next itinerary.
Seeing her so eager to leave, combined with his understanding of her, he figured the Female Devil's next destination would still be for teachers. So he wanted to test her. Currently, the only countries where Elizabeth could negotiate terms, besides the Empire, were the Dragon Kingdom and the Kingdom. It seemed more likely she would go to the Dragon Kingdom.
"The Dragon Kingdom, oh. The Dragon Queen should also be facing the same problems as you, Emperor Brother! So I plan to try my luck there. The Undead Archmages I sent them earlier probably aren't enough, right? This was indeed an oversight on my part." Elizabeth said.
Sure enough… it was the Dragon Kingdom! And he had also extracted the information that the Dragon Kingdom was already using Undead Archmages for healing. Perhaps they were included as a bonus when the Dragon Kingdom hired Undead laborers from the Magic Kingdom the previous two times?
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